Top play opens in Des Moines

The most-honored play on Broadway opened in Des Moines last night (Wednesday) featuring the original actress who won a Tony Award for her performance. The play “Doubt” focuses on a nun who’s the principal of a fictional Catholic school in 1964 New York. Cherry Jones portrays Sister Aloysius, who suspects a popular young priest has molested the school’s first black student.

Jones says “That’s sort of the jumping off place. What the play then becomes is almost like a Rorschach test to the soul for the audience. About ten minutes into this play, the play becomes the audience’s because it’s up to them to decide what happened.” She says “I want to stress, this is not a grim play about pedophilia. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about how we judge and how we proceed in the world.”

Jones says “Doubt” offers a host of clues into what happened at the Bronx school but never draws a conclusion. That is the beauty of the play, she says, as it inspires conversation and spirited debate long after the curtain falls.

Jones says “It sounds like a simple ‘who-dunnit’ but it’s not. It’s about how we judge, the process by which we judge, and our ability to deal with uncertainty, whether we have to absolutely know that we’re right or whether we are capable of giving over to the fact that we can’t always know. It’s a fascinating play for an audience.”

The play won four Tony Awards in 2005 and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. “Doubt” is at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines through Sunday. For more information, see the website “www.civiccenter.org”.